


You, and the Moon, and Neptune

by FalabaWitch



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, characters added as they show up, warning: weed and alcohol in abundance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 08:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4053421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalabaWitch/pseuds/FalabaWitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of course a girl as pretty as her has garnered a bit of a crowd, even Mulder can feel the energy that generates off of her from over here. She’s not just magnetic, that’s too mundane for her. She’s her own little well of gravity, which draws in passing people like the flotsam and jetsam of space.</p><p>It’s then Mulder realizes just how drunk he must be, because he’s musing poetic about a girl he hasn’t even introduced himself to her. So, the solution, is to go introduce himself to her. Obviously. Mulder pats himself on the back for thinking that one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You, and the Moon, and Neptune

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from 'Bright' by Echosmith. More notes at the end.

Mulder sees her standing in a corner of the part, her lipstick impeccable on her lips and eyes a beacon in the dark, and he thinks it’s a bit of love he feels in his heart. Or just the burger passing through his stomach and slowly killing him. But mostly love.

He isn’t exactly sure why he was invited to this party, except maybe as a dare or a joke to get Spooky Mulder to show up. He’s half expecting someone to drag him out of the room as he stares at this girl, and hoist him up on the nearest flag pole.At this point he would barely care, with four beers in him and the lovely sight in front of him. 

The lights of the room are dim, and flicker across the walls behind her with the movement and beat of the room. In that dim light, he thinks he can see that her hairs red, and frames her face perfectly. She’s smiling faintly and laughing at a joke from one of the people around her. Of course a girl as pretty as her has garnered a bit of a crowd, even Mulder can feel the energy that generates off of her from over here. She’s not just magnetic, that’s too mundane for her. She’s her own little well of gravity, which draws in passing people like the flotsam and jetsam of space.

It’s then Mulder realizes just how drunk he must be, because he’s musing poetic about a girl he hasn’t even introduced himself to her. So, the solution, is to go introduce himself to her. Obviously. Mulder pats himself on the back for thinking that one.

So he walks up to her, the girl with the red flaming hair and a choker that enhances the long, slender beauty of her neck, and he says, “Hi.”

He has nothing else to say, and it’s then he realizes, through beer-like haze, that he has yet to actually think of something to say to her. And he realizes that this is a fairly large flaw in his plan.

But she looks up at him, through thick eyelashes, and the people around her look up at him too. Mulder becomes a little bit more self conscious of his alien tee-shirt and fake horn-rimmed glasses. Everyone is silent, and for a party there is a startling loud awkward silence.

“...Hi,” She says, and she smiles a little. Only one of the corners of her mouth turns up, but she holds out the hand that isn’t holding a beer, and points at him, “Mulder, right? Spooky Mulder?”

He shrugs, and figures that if that’s the way this conversation is going to start off, he might as well just roll with it, “Most people just call me Mulder, the Spooky is extra. Only for the people who really like me,” He’s sarcastic of course, but he’s not sure if anyone is sober enough to detect the subtlety of his wicked sense of humor.

He thinks the girl picks up on it though, as her little quirked upper lip turns into a larger smile, showing off that even her teeth looked perfect in the dim light, “Alright. Mulder. Only Spooky for special occasions, how about that? And what’s Mulder doing at a party like this?” Her words could be mocking, but she says them in the way a friend says things, a kind teasing that makes you feel included in the joke.

“Any ghosts likely to pop up? Or maybe an alien abduction is scheduled to happen tonight,” One of the guys at the girls side says, in a way that is decidedly not friendly. Mulder ducks his head, hoping that he doesn’t blush, and the girl smacks the other guys chest.

“Shush you. Don’t be a dick,” She says to him, and again looks at Mulder, “You got any friends at this party?” She touches his arm, and he feels the electric feeling of having someone touch you for the first time. Her nails are long and painted black, and his skin is alive. She has immediately become his favorite person.

“I don’t really have friends, Acquaintances, maybe. Pretty sure I was invited on a dare,” Mulder shrugged, playing it off as nothing, because at this point it was nothing. He’d faced a lot worse in highschool, so far college was barely even miserable.

She looked a little bit heartbroken at this though, like she’d never heard of someone being invited to be the joke, “That’s terrible! No, not allowed. Come, sit down with me Mulder. You’re gonna spend the night with me, and I’m going to be your friend, and that’s that,” She pulls him down, and now theyre both sitting on the floor, the others towering above them like giants, before she motions for them all to sit down around her. They do, because of course they do, and she calls out to the crowd, “Someone get a bong over here, we’re having a bonding time!” She cracks into giggles, almost tipping over, “Boding bong time. Bong-ding time,” She laughs again at her pun, her hair falling in front of her face as she ducks her head down, like a silky orange curtain.

He has no idea where this bong comes from, or who’s it is, but he breathes in the smoke with a fervour, “I’ve never actually had weed, now that I think about it,” He confesses, and the girl looks at him with wide eyes, and her jaw drops.

“Never? But, aren’t you like, a Junior? How have you never had weed?” She relaxes against the wall, and as she speaks smoke leaves her mouth in elegant wisps. Mulder considers her, and thinks she looks like a painting. He thinks it would be Untitled.

“Again, not a lot of friends. Even if I did have a weed-dealing friend, what’s sadder than smoking alone?” He coughs a little when he breathes the smoke in, as relieving as it is. She gives him a sad little look, but then grabs his hand.

“Well, now you’re not alone. So, problem solved,” She gives him a bright little smile, and conversation begins to pick up around them. Mulder barely talks for a long while, making tiny quips in the regular conversation around him. He takes a hit every time the weed comes around, and after a while he notices that the room is becoming more beautiful, and the girl with the red hair even more beautiful than that. He starts talking to her, about anything, about his cases, because he just knows that she’ll listen. And she does, with rapturous attention. She soaks in every detail, and she believes him, which is something he’s never felt before. And Mulder is pretty sure he’s in love with her, even if she has yet to tell him her name. Because names don’t matter, only the human connection, and he’s making that right now.

She giggles, “Well, I should tell you my name anyway,” She says, and Mulder realizes that, at one point, he’d begun talking and saying his internal monologue- which he apparently, embarrassingly has said out loud.

She holds out her hand again, for a handshake, “Melissa Scully, at your service,”

Mulder smiles, because it’s a beautiful name, “Hi Melissa. I’m Fox Mulder,”

She leans in close, “So, you were talking about how our past lives can sometimes affect our present ones?” She says, and Mulder is about to dive in once again to his theories and ideas, when a voice cuts in above them. It’s like a knife in the sound, or a breeze of cool fresh air on a humid day.

“Melissa? I’ve been looking all over for you! Don’t you have a test tomorrow, what are you even doing? “ They all look up, and the source of the breath of cool air is another red haired woman, with shorter and straighter hair, and and she looks startlingly like she’s related to Melissa. The Lipstick is just as well applied, except a dark, deep red, and her eyes are the same, except they’re more alert, like the kind you see staring out from the woods. And Mulder thinks he could be a little in love with her too.

“Dana! Come on, sit down, join us! Meet my new friend, Mulder! Or, Spooky if he really likes you,” She motions to Mulder, and he waves sheepishly. The new girl, Dana, look at him, and raises an eyebrow, “I’ve heard about Spooky Mulder. Nice to finally put a face to a name,” She turns back to Melissa then, “However, as nice as your new friend might be, you have to go back to your dorm Melissa.”

Melissa pouts, but gets up. Unfortunately, she seems to have not let go of Mulder’s other hand, and he is dragged up along with her. Dana looks at him.

“Let me rephrase that, you need to get back to your dorm, unaccompanied. Come on ‘Lis,” She pulls Melissa to the door, who is refusing to let go of Mulders hand at all.

“He’s lonely Dana, he has no friends! I can’t leave him here like a lost puppy!” Melissa is whining, and suddenly Mulder is in between the two women. Dana looks annoyed, and Melissa...looks like she’s about to cry if she leaves Mulder here alone. And Suddenly Dana looks a lot less hostile, and more exhausted, and she says, “Fine, fine. But we’re taking him to his dorm, not back to yours. You need to sleep this off, you can’t fail this test,”

And then Melissa is smiling again, like she won the best toy at the country fair, and their taking Mulder home with them. Never mind that neither had actually asked Mulder about this plan, but he didn’t mind. In his mind, he was going home with two lovely, wondrous women. One of whom liked to even listen to him, which was some sort of miracle. The other one was decidedly less friendly, but who was he to argue when she was taking him in his car, far far away from a party of people who were probably there to humiliate him, who would have if Melissa hadn’t been there.

Dana unlocks her car outside, and Mulder notices that the thing is very tiny, and he’s not sure the three of them can entirely fit in it. He also notices that it’s very old, and he wonders faintly if it has that old car smell, the smell of a car with history and time to it, and hopefully it’s year has been kind. He’s stopped in his tracks for a moment, before Melissa keeps pulling him forward, and Mulder begins to contemplate how amazing the back of her head looks, before they stop once again. Dana opens the door to the back seat of the car, and has Melissa get in, “So are you just high this time, or drunk as well?”

Melissa giggles, falling into the backseat and lying down, “I’m high off life Dana, who needs alcohol?”

Dana stares down at her, looking unimpressed by the comment, “So, both then. Fantastic. Thank god you’re not driving,” Dana hauls her sister up, strapping her increasingly limp body into the back seat, and they both watch Melissa fall forward as soon as Dana lets her go. It’s then that Mulder begins to reconsider everything yet again.

But Dana looks up at him, and jerks her thumb to the passenger front seat, “Come on. I hope you’re not as wasted as Melissa seems,” 

She gets in the front seat, sitting down with resigned exhaustion that tells Mulder this isn’t the first time she’s done this, or the last time she will. He follows her to the front, sitting in the passengers side of the small car. He’s right that it can barely fit the three of them, but Mulder has to admit that it’s his own largeness that’s a problem, and not the cars small-ness. He’s knees feel like they’re to his chest, and he has to duck his head to get inside, and keep it ducked. He’s tempted to ask her to open up the sunroof to let his head out the top, before he realizes that's a terrible idea.

It doesn’t stop him from asking her though, and Mulder is learning that there is a downside to him on weed. She looks at him like he’s insane. “What? No! I’m not going to let you stick your head out the top of my car, in what world is that a good idea?”

It’s the first time that Mulders gotten a really good look at her, because he’s yet to close the door on his side, so he can see her in the tiny light of the car. And he’s decided she’s even more beautiful in the light, rays reflecting off her red bob, her lips pursed in quiet astonishment over Mulder. He notices the spikes on the shoulders of her jacket, and the black choker around her neck. He also notices the golden cross sitting there as well, and how beautiful it looks in the light. An accentuation on her, really.

She’s still just looking at him like he’s grown a third head, so he just closes the door and waves at her, “Mulder. Fox Mulder,” As if she needed reminding who he was. He smiles widely, his lips stretching thin over his teeth, and he can feel the dry skin cracking a little. She smiles weakly back.

“Dana Scully. Hi.” And with that, she kicks the car into gear and they’re driving. 

“Scully. Like Melissa. You’re sisters?” He asks vaguely, waving with his hand to Melissa in the back seat. She seemed to be unconscious then, and light snoring wafted from her.

Dana nods, “Call me Scully though, everyone does.”

Mulder nods as well, “Then call me Mulder. Everyone does,”

Dana- Scully, he amends in his mind- didn’t look at him, but she had that same little smile Melissa had had before, “I thought everyone called you Spooky?”

Mulder laughed, loudly, and slung his arm around Scully’s seat, “Only the special people. Mostly the special means ‘asshole’, but still. Are you special, Scully?”

He’s hesitant about asking, because he’s not sure he wants to know the answer. He wants to like her, this pretty, stern woman with pretty, pursed lips, and if she’s an asshole he might be a crushed.

She shrugs, “I wouldn’t say I’m that kind of ‘special’, no. I may have heard some odd things about you Mulder, but I’m not going to judge you before I know you. This, however, is probably not your best first impression ever, is it?”

Mulder looks at the road, “I’ve had worse. To be fair though, I can’t really remember them right now, because the lights on the road are kind of distracting. And, you’re kind of distracting. Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are when you’re concentrating?”

And she really is, he’s not lying. The Scully family must have good genes, because each of their daughters is unique dazzling. Melissa like the soft light of the moon, Dana like the piercing sun.

Scully snorts, and Mulder has resolved not to drift off into thought until he knows that his thoughts can be kept safely inside his head. Especially when those thoughts are terrible poetry.  
“You’re nice when you’re high, I’ll give you that. Just wish I met you when you weren’t high,” She says, and Mulder shakes his head vigorously.

“No, you don’t. I’m much less quiet, and I talk about Aliens a lot. Most people don’t like Aliens,” He shrugs, “Their loss. I guess,”

Scully nods slowly, and Mulder can see he’s losing her a little, like everyone else, “That covers one of the odd things I’ve heard about you. You run the supernatural club here, right?”

“The Supernatural Investigation Society. Although I call it the X-files,” Mulder can feel himself coming down a bit, the tips of his toes just beginning to touch the ground. He’s still tipsy however, so it’s worth little that he’s not as high, and he continues to ramble on, “Those are a subset of government cases, unsolved and just plain weird. My dad told me about them, and I just kind of ran with it. Officially, it’s just the Supernatural Investigation Society,”

They’re stopped at a stop light, and Scully looks at him, with raised eyebrows and her mouth a little open with incredulity. He hasn’t said anything quite shocking yet, but she seems to be more stunned at the information he’s giving her at all. “Less drunk and high than you’d think, for someone who was just talking about past lives,” He smiles broadly at her, and she hesitantly smiles back.

“So you really believe all that stuff, even when you’re not thinking that we’re all riding in a yellow submarine?” She asks him, and she’s tapping her nails on the steering wheel while she drives. They’re black and make a nice, satisfying sound on the faux-leather of the wheel.

“Yeah. I mean, people are always making up stories, so you got to investigate the whole thing, but everything has a grain of truth in it Scully,” Her name rolls off his tongue like sweet tasting butter, and he could do with saying it again, and again, “And that’s what I’m looking for. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me Giant Flying Spaghetti Monster,” His smile has grown into a full blown smirk, and she gives a snort of laughter. She’s smiling now, that dark color framing her teeth with pleasant contrast. Mulder notices the tiny wrinkles around her eyes when she smiles, the roundness of her cheeks, and (he’s making sure his mouth isn’t moving this time, to go along with his thoughts), he thinks she’s utterly kissable. He doesn’t kiss her, but he can see himself doing so with incredible ease.

“Please tell me that isn’t one of the things you believe in, I might have to kick you out of this car,” She says, her voice bubbling over with a bit of laughter.

“Well I mean, you can’t rule it out, but I’m fairly sure we would have discovered that Spaghetti Monster behind Saturn by now,” He replies.

“Oh, but Aliens coming to Earth, that’s completely realistic, even without proof,” Scully says, and it feels less like an attack, more like a nudge, and he nudges right back.

“There is proof! Just because you don’t believe that proof doesn’t mean it’s not there. There are dozens of different accounts of alien abduction, and picture of UFO’s-”

“Most of the symptoms of alien abduction can be explained by sleep paralysis, dreams, and a willingness to believe, influenced by the popular culture and stereotypes surrounding aliens,” She says, this long complex explanation falling out of her mouth, and while it disputes and tries to disprove everything he believes in, it excites him, and he goes off. Words float off into the night as they debate and discuss the rest of the night home, and it’s the most interesting conversation he’s had in too long, where no one is either blindly agreeing with him, or regarding him as a freak. It’s intelligent, and she’s intelligent, and very much in awe of her.

But at one point, they finally pull up to the dorms, and Scully drags her sister out of the arm and loops the unconscious Melissa’s arm around her shoulder. Melissa’s head lolls, and the elegance she had at the party is very much gone, “Need any help with her?” Mulder offers, reaching out for Melissa’s other arm.

Scully shakes her head, “No, I got it. You need a ride back to your own dorm Mulder?”

He shakes his head, “It’s not far, and walking is nice. See you around then, Scully,” He smiles again, and he knows she probably won’t even talk to him again. People don’t stay in contact with him, the same way people rarely talk to him. It’s why he doesn’t have friends. It’s better that way.

But she smiles back, and waves as she walks into the dorm, “See you around, Mulder,” ANd with that, he’s left to watch the two heads of red hair disappear behind the doors, and Mulder is left in the emptiness of the night alone. He breathes in the night air, and thinks back on the way the smoke left Melissa’s mouth, and the spirited light behind Dana’s eyes, and he keeps on smiling. He smiles his whole way home, and resolves to remember the name Scully.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I may continue this, I just need to think of where to go after this. I want to do something with Mulder and Scully and their little lame college club, and Melissa being involved, and probably a lot of other recurring characters. The summary is kind of a placeholder until I can think of a plot to actually go with this, which could take a while.
> 
> Also, very inspired by punkscully's Hipster Mulder and Punk Scully College AU. Go check it out! 
> 
> http://punkscully.tumblr.com/tagged/the%20adventures%20of%20hipster%20mulder%20and%20punk%20scully


End file.
